Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

German Poet, Dramatist, Natural Philosopher, Novelist, Courtier

"The smallest hair throws its shadow."

"The society of women is the element of good manners."

"The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace. "

"The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone."

"The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application."

"There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small."

"There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior."

"There is no more lovely worship of God than that for which no image is required, but which springs up in our breast spontaneously when nature speaks to the soul, and the soul speaks to nature face to face."

"There is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation."

"There is no surer method of evading the world than by following art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by art."

"There is nothing in the world more pitiable than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them."

"There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste."

"There is nothing more pitiable in the world than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two, and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them."

"Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking."

"This world could not exist if it were not so simple."

"Those only who know little can be said to know anything. The greater the knowledge the greater the doubt."

"To accept good advice is but to increase one's own ability."

"To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us."

"To be loved for what one is, is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him, their own selves, their version of him."

"To become gentler one needs only to grow old."

"To make a young couple love each other, it is only necessary to oppose and separate them."

"To the man of thought almost nothing is really ridiculous."

"Tolerance comes with age; I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other."

"True happiness springs from moderation."

"True religion teaches us to reverence what is under us, to recognize humility and poverty, and despite mockery and disgrace, wretchedness, suffering, and death as things divine."

"Trust yourself, then you will know how to live."

"Unlike grownups, children have little need to deceive themselves."

"We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright."

"We are the slaves of objects around us, and appear little or important according as these contract or give us room to expand."

"We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases."

"We must not take the faults of our youth into our old age, for old age brings with it its own defects."

"We would know mankind better if we were not so anxious to resemble one another."

"What is freedom of the most free? To do what is right!"

"What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves."

"What makes poetry? A full heart, brimful of one noble passion."

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."

"When you praise someone you call yourself his equal."

"Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions."

"Where a man has a passion for meditating without the capacity of thinking, a particular idea fixes itself fast, and soon creates a mental disease."

"Which is the best government? That which teaches self-government."

"Who never ate his bread with tears, who never sat weeping on his bed during care-ridden nights knows you not, your heavenly powers."

"Without my work in natural science I should never have known human beings as they really are. In no other activity can one come so close to direct perception and clear thought, or realize so fully the errors of the senses, the mistakes of the intellect, the weakness and greatnesses of human character."

"Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to be explained by words; the spirit in which we act is the great matter."

"[Nature] is whole and yet never finished."

"A useless life is an early death. "

"Character calls forth character."

"Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow."

"He is dangerous who has nothing to lose."

"If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often we can meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking about it at all!"

"In the endless self-repeating for evermore flows the Same. Streams from all things love of living, grandest star and humblest clod. All the straining, all the striving is peace in God."